Intel Driver Iris Xe Graphics Driver Freezes All Application

[lorenzostolk]

Strategy 1 (device manager):

I updated my Intel driver to 31.0.101.4952 with the Intel Driver Assistent and it broke my laptop. 

I tried what was advised in this post: https://community.intel.com/t5/Graphics/Intel-Iris-Xe-problems-with-freezing-screen/td-p/1404991 

I uninstalled the driver in device manager, restarted my laptop, and everything worked fine untill a few minutes later. File explorer, cmd and control panel worked fine, but all apps and the windows 11 settings panel kept freezing.

I tried the driver from here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19344/intel-graphics-windows-dch-drivers.html and this worked fine. But when internet is up, it updates I guess and everything freezes again. 

With the https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/785597/intel-arc-iris-xe-graphics-windows.html , I installed the 31.0.101.4887, which works fine. It also installed ARC. I put the wifi on, opened ARC, ARC updated to 31.0.101.4952 express. Than after a few restarts, everything started to freeze again after around 30 seconds after startup. 

The only thing I can find that installed after this was Microsoft Windows Desktop Runtime - 7.0.7 (X64), so I updated it the latest version (7.0.13). 

When an app is frozen, it crashed when u press something in it. Sometimes it responds to closing, and sometimes it does not. When it it closed, It does not open when I try to start the application again. 

After a few times my windows gave me the error "user profile cannot be loaded". Windows created a TEMP user profile, which I now fixed. 

Strategy 2 (DDU):

Now I uninstalled it with DDU in safe mode.

I found out that after I installed a version like 31.0.101.4887 in safe mode (not sure if it installed, the installed said succesful), restarted to normal mode, my screen starts blinking cause windows comes with an update called "Intel Corporation - Display - 30.0.101.1298". Than after restart, everything works fine. Than windows comes with another update called "Intel Corporation - Extension - 31.0.101.4255". I restarted and no other updates came and everything worked. After a few hours it broke again. 

I checked the Intel Iris Xe version and it is still 30.0.101.1298. 

This driver update broke it all. What is causing it? Are these problems known by Intel? 

P.S. The README post says "A clean driver installation using DDU in safe mode is recommended." while it takes you to an instruction to UNinstall. 

In the attachments you will find some info/logs from DirectX Diagnostic Tool and Intel System Support Utility of Strategy 1. 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello lorenzostolk,   

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I want to understand what happened just as much as you do. 

Before I investigate this issue internally, I would like to know if these freezes are present with the latest Razer drivers and if this issue continues with the latest driver (31.0.101.4953) from Intel released on 11/13/2023.

Driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/785597/intel-arc-iris-xe-graphics-windows.html

I will be waiting for your confirmation.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[lorenzostolk]

Hello Deivid, 

Also with the latest driver everything freezes after restart. I deleted the driver with DDU first, and installed the neweste driver before and after the windows driver update. The only fix is deleting the driver for now. 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello lorenzostolk, 

Thank you for the information provided 

I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details. 

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[lorenzostolk]

Heey Deivid, 

Thank you for your help, you dont need to provide me with help anymore. I factory resetted my pc. 

My computer started to go downhill. I kept getting "user profile cannot be loaded" errors when I tried to load up Windows. It created a TEMP user where everything worked fine. So I dont think it is the driver alone, but that during the installation some settings got changed or corrupted, maybe never resseted. Maybe something in registry. It didnt matter if I did an express or clean installation. The installations maybe forgot something to change. Im all speculating, I dont know, I wish I knew.

I vaguely remember that I tried to update my .NET 7.0 runtime and that temporarily fixed it for a few minutes, but this could also have nothing to do with it. 

The manufacturer did not know what to do, they also said it is an Intel/Windows problem. It all took too long for me, and with the errors I was getting, I resetted the whole system. 

My apologies if you got invested and that I cannot provide any more data from the broken system. 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello lorenzostolk, 

Thanks for your patience. Since this issue is present with any driver version (old or new), seems that may be related to the laptop itself. I recommend you check this issue with Razer so they can run the pertinent tests on their system if this behavior is being caused by hardware malfunctioning or software corruption.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician